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In a Lonely Place

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid, Art Smith
ASIN : B000087F79
Sales Rank : 14662
Director : Nicholas Ray
Brand : Sony
Studio : Sony Pictures
Region Code : 99
Format : Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780767882910
ISBN : 0767882911
UPC : 043396078963
Release Date : December 18, 2003
Publisher : Sony Pictures
Manufacturer : Sony Pictures
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Label : Sony Pictures
Running Time : 93

Product Description

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 01/22/2008 Run time: 93 minutes Rating: Nr

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One of Humphrey Bogart's finest performances dominates this unusual 1950 film noir, which focuses less on the murder mystery at the center of its plot than on the investigation's devastating effect on a fragile romance. For Bogart, already a noir icon, the Andrew Solt script afforded an opportunity to explore a more complex and contradictory role--an antiheroic persona in line with the actor's most accomplished and absorbing triumphs throughout his career.

For maverick director Nicholas Ray, the film posed the challenge of taking crime dramas beyond their usual formulas and into a more mature realm, as well as a chance to cast a jaundiced eye on the film industry itself. Its protagonist is Dixon Steele, a Hollywood screenwriter with an acerbic wit and a violent temper. Tasked with adapting a bestseller, he meets a hatcheck girl who's read the book, hoping to glean its highlights before writing the script. When she's found murdered, Steele becomes the prime suspect, and a tightening knot of suspicion forms around the writer.

Steele's only, inconclusive witness is a pretty new neighbor, Laurel (Gloria Grahame), and the couple fall in love even as the pressure mounts. At first the new relationship is a tonic to the hard-boiled writer, who plunges into his script with a renewed vigor and discipline. But as the police continue to shadow him, Steele's own penchant for violence erupts against friends, strangers, and even Laurel herself, whose feelings are increasingly eclipsed by suspicion that her lover is a murderer, and fear that he'll harm her.

Bogart conveys Steele's world-weariness and underlying vulnerability, and manages the delicate task of making both his romantic yearning and sudden, murderous rages equally convincing. Ultimately, that performance and Grahame's sympathetic work elevate In a Lonely Place into what has been called "an existential love story" more than a crime drama. --Sam Sutherland

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Bugsy (Unrated Extended Cut)

Actors: Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould
ASIN : B000H5TH20
Sales Rank : 11944
Director : Barry Levinson
Brand : Sony
Studio : Sony Pictures
Region Code : 99
Format : AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0043396102590
UPC : 043396102590
Release Date : December 12, 2006
Publisher : Sony Pictures
Manufacturer : Sony Pictures
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Label : Sony Pictures
Running Time : 149

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Warren Beatty and Annette Bening star in the incredible true story of Benjamin Bugsy Siegel, the playboy gangster who betrayed the Mob for love. A cold-blooded killer who dreamed of Hollywood stardom, a crazed patriot who plotted against Mussolini, and the brilliant visionary who carved Las Vegas out of the dry Nevada desert, Bugsy had it all. Until he fell for the one woman who wanted more. A critical masterpiece, BUGSY is a remarkable collaboration of Hollywood's best: director Barry Levinson, screenwriter James Toback, and an all-star supporting cast that includes Harvey Keitel, Oscar®-winner Ben Kingsley (Best Actor, Gandhi,1982), Joe Mantegna, and Elliott Gould. But at the center of itall is the white-hot romance between Bugsy and the insatiable starlet, Virginia Hill.

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Bugsy represents an almost miraculous combination of director, writer, and star on a project that represents a career highlight for everyone involved. It's one of the best American gangster movies ever made--as good in its own way as any of the Godfather films--and it's impossible to imagine anyone better than Beatty in the movie's flashy title role. As notorious mobster and Las Vegas visionary "Bugsy" Siegel, Beatty is perfectly cast as a man whose dreams are greater than his ability to realize them--or at least, greater than his ability to stay alive while making those dreams come true. With a glamorous Hollywood mistress (Annette Bening) who shares Bugsy's dream while pursuing her own upwardly mobile agenda, Bugsy seems oblivious to threats when he begins to spend too much of the mob's money on the creation of the Flamingo casino. Meyer Lansky (Ben Kingsley) and Mickey Cohen (Harvey Keitel) will support Bugsy's wild ambition to a point, after which all bets are off, and Bugsy's life hangs in the balance. From the obvious chemistry of Beatty and Bening (who met and later married off-screen) to the sumptuous reproduction of 1940s Hollywood, every detail in this movie feels impeccably right. Beatty is simply mesmerizing as the man who invented Las Vegas but never saw it thrive, moving from infectious idealism to brutal violence in the blink of an eye. Director Barry Levinson is also in peak form here, guiding the stylish story with a subtle balance of admiration and horror; we can catch Bugsy's Vegas fever and root for the gangster's success, but we know he'll get what he deserves. We might wish that Bugsy had lived to see his dream turn into a booming oasis, but the movie doesn't suggest that we should shed any tears. --Jeff Shannon

Bugsy: Extended Cut special features

Anyone who's heard how intense (or perhaps the word is "torturous") it can be to make a film with Warren Beatty will be captivated by the behind-the-scenes extras on the Bugsy: Extended Cut DVD. The highlight is the chat among screenwriter James Toback, director Barry Levinson, and star and co-producer Beatty on how the project and the final film came to be. Tellingly, Beatty is sitting quite apart from the other two, though they're in a semi-circular banquette at Perino's in Los Angeles.

The conversation starts out slowly, with Toback, a genial blowhard, talking about losing the original script, but it picks up steam when the topic turns to the casting of the excellent actors in the film, including Sir Ben Kingsley and Elliott Gould, who also participate. And of course the most interesting off-screen component of the project--Beatty meeting his future wife, costar Annette Bening--is given a fun spotlight in the film. Levinson remembers that after meeting Bening for the first time, Beatty called him enthusiastically saying, "She's great, I love her, I'm going to marry her" ("you know, just a throwaway line," Levinson says, laughing), and Toback and Levinson and Bening herself talk about the signs the two were slowly falling in love. It's as dishy as anything you're likely to see about the notoriously private Beatty, and well worth the investment.

Other extras include several deleted scenes that are now included in the film (and unlike many other "extended cut" releases, actually enhance the depth of the story). One is a harrowing scene in which Bugsy contemplates, and nearly commits, suicide, via Russian roulette. Another is an amusing screen test that Siegal takes, thinking his roguish charm will translate to the big screen. Though it takes Beatty's considerable talents to make that happen, the earnestness of Siegal's outsider character is touching in glimpses like this. --A.T. Hurley

Beyond Bugsy

Other Gangsters films on Amazon.com
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Stills from Bugsy (click for larger image)

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Infamous

Actors: Sigourney Weaver, Toby Jones, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Rubin, Steve Schwelling
ASIN : B000M341SC
Sales Rank : 13404
Director : Douglas McGrath
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0085391137382
UPC : 085391137382
Release Date : December 13, 2007
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
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Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 118

Description

"Certainly as good [as Capote] and a lot more fun. Toby Jones is so physically right, you'll think Capote is playing himself." - Jack Mathews, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS 1959 Manhattan was a party, and none of the glitterati glittered brighter than Truman Capote. Then he saw a story in The New York Times: "Wealthy Farmer, 3 of Family Slain," and the party ended for Capote. He plunged into the murder case that inspired his great "nonfiction novel" In Cold Blood and led him into a fevered relationship with one of the two doomed killers. But there's more to the story than you know. Toby Jones (as Capote) leads Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig, Sigourney Weaver and many more stars in a witty, moving and astonishing tale of obsession. What happened to the extraordinary literary talent that burned within Truman Capote? The answer may be found in a story at once famous and Infamous.

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Infamous is inevitably compared to Capote, since it also chronicles author Truman Capote's spiral into chaos while composing his masterpiece, In Cold Blood, a breakthrough non-fictional tale told as fiction. It's a shame that Capote's critical acclaim eclipsed this film's, as Toby Jones is perfectly convincing as Capote, with his small stature and eccentric manner. Infamous mimics the novel's fictionalized non-fiction, opening on "interviews" with Capote's New York friends like Diana Vreeland (Juliet Stevenson) and Babe Paley (Sigourney Weaver). The film, set in 1959, begins with Capote's discovery of the farm family murder story and his trek out to Kansas with confidant, Nelle Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock). Stressing Capote's relationships with Lee, the film justifies Capote's marginal behavior by Lee's speaking about Capote's childhood neglect, which she also wrote into To Kill A Mockingbird. Capote's own description of his rough childhood then serves as a barrier breaker between himself and Perry Smith (Daniel Craig), the half of the Perry Smith-Dick Hickock killing team who is at first unwilling to talk. Infamous makes much of the sexual tension between Capote and Smith, implying that Capote persevered through his project for Smith's love. Based on George Plimpton's oral biography, Infamous deserves a stellar place in Capote-lore, as there is ample room for both competing films. --Trinie Dalton

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Henry - Portrait of a Serial Killer (20th Anniversary)

Actors: Mary Demas, Michael Rooker, Anne Bartoletti, Elizabeth Kaden, Ted Kaden
ASIN : B0009OUBC4
Sales Rank : 23787
Director : John McNaughton
Studio : Mpi Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Special Edition, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780788606656
ISBN : 0788606654
UPC : 030306770093
Release Date : December 27, 2005
Publisher : Mpi Home Video
Manufacturer : Mpi Home Video
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Label : Mpi Home Video
Running Time : 83

Description

Ever seen a film so terrifying that it made you want to sleep with all the lights on? A film so unsettling that some of its scenes were stuck in your mind long after you'd finished viewing it? John McNaughton's horrific masterpiece HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER is that kind of film. Based on true events, this critically-acclaimed classic so believably portrays the senseless killing spree of a dangerous sociopath on the loose, Michael Rooker in a bone-chilling performance, that people can't stop talking about it even twenty years after it was filmed. If you've never seen HENRY before, get ready for the ride of your life. If you have seen HENRY and are one if its many fans, you're not going to want to miss this 20th Anniversary Special Edition, which is packed full of never-before-seen extras and is presented here in a stunning new high definition transfer supervised by the director.

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Most horror films exist in a fantasy movie-world safely removed from our existence, populated by zombie-like killers and psychopathic madmen. The power of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is its chilling placement in the mundane existence of everyday life. Michael Rooker plays Henry not as a raving psychopath but as the frumpy guy next door, a drifter who takes out his frustrations on random victims and escalates his body count after teaming up with the violent ex-con Otis (Tom Towles). Though not exceedingly gory in light of the excesses of such fantasy horrors as the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street series, director John McNaughton's straightforward presentation and documentary-like style creates a chilling realism that many viewers will find hard to watch. McNaughton neither comments on nor flinches at the brutal violence, which reaches its apex in a disturbing camcorder-eye view of a particularly sadistic murder of a middle-class couple, with Henry and Otis smiling through the deed as they record it for their continued pleasure. Henry straddles the line between True Crime (though fictional, the story was inspired by the confessions of real life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas) and horror, a bleak, brutal kind of terror for a generation deadened by the escalating outrageousness of movie murders and nightly news crime scene clips. --Sean Axmaker

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Shattered Glass

Actors: Hayden Christensen, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Zahn, Peter Sarsgaard, Rosario Dawson
ASIN : B0001907AI
Sales Rank : 12792
Director : Billy Ray
Brand : Lions Gate
Studio : Lions Gate Films
Region Code : 1
Format : Anamorphic, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9781594351570
ISBN : 1594351570
UPC : 031398117049
Release Date : December 23, 2004
Publisher : Lions Gate Films
Manufacturer : Lions Gate Films
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Label : Lions Gate Films
Running Time : 94

Product Description

Stephen is a staff writer for the new republic & freelance writer for publications such as rolling stone. By the mid-90s his articles had turned him into one of the most sought after young journalists in washington but a bizarre chain of events suddenly stopped his career in its tracks. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 09/14/2004 Starring: Peter Sarsgaard Chloe Sevigny Run time: 94 minutes Rating: Pg13

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Shattered Glass is the best film about journalism since All the President's Men. If that seems like lofty praise, consider this: In telling the true story of fallen journalist and pathological liar Stephen Glass, writer-director Billy Ray had to thoroughly and believably demonstrate how Glass--played in a pitch-perfect performance by Hayden Christensen--could single-handedly betray the trust of vigilant editors, writers, fact-checkers, and copyeditors while he falsified numerous highly praised articles as a hot, seemingly gifted reporter for The New Republic magazine in the late 1990s. Making an assured directorial debut, Ray brilliantly explores the delicate office politics that allowed for Glass's ongoing deception, which was diligently exposed by a reporter (Steve Zahn) from Forbes Online Tool, thus toppling Glass's tower of lies and setting a noble precedent for online journalism. From Glass's ingratiating psychopathology to the anguish of TNR's then-unpopular editor (Peter Sarsgaard) as he discovers the extent of Glass's wrongdoing, Shattered Glass is a riveting, perfectly cast study of ambition gone sour, countered by the nobility of respectable journalists in the wake of a worst-case scenario. --Jeff Shannon

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The Petrified Forest

Actors: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Genevieve Tobin, Dick Foran, Humphrey Bogart
ASIN : B0006HBV2I
Sales Rank : 9447
Director : Archie Mayo, Roy Mack, Friz Freleng
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780790747224
ISBN : 0790747227
UPC : 012569522626
Release Date : December 25, 2005
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
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Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 82

Product Description

A gangster on the run takes people hostage in a roadside diner. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 01/25/2005 Starring: Leslie Howard Humphrey Bogart Run time: 82 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Archie Mayo

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Adapted from a hit Broadway play by Robert Sherwood and starring original cast members Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart, this 1936 suspense drama is set in an aging desert roadhouse café, where a young woman (Bette Davis) dreams of escaping a dead-end existence spent with her father and a lunkheaded, would-be suitor. Along comes a penniless poet (Howard), a wanderer who has made a mess of his life and crossed the hot sands as a symbolic act of meaningful futility. Davis's waitress is instantly enchanted, and in short order they begin talking about heading out to the world together. Then a twist: the world comes to them--in the form of escaped convicts, led by the monosyllabic Duke Mantee (Bogart), who secretly agrees to the poet's request that the fugitive gangster kill him. Directed by Archie Mayo (The Great American Broadcast), much of the film, perhaps inevitably, looks set-bound. Most of the action occurs in the café, and the script's tension sadly dissipates a bit as villains and hostages stay glued to their seats. The film's enduring appeal has everything to do with the leading performances: the fascinating alchemy of Howard's ethereal air, Davis's sexy urgency, and Bogart's bemused menace. If the story feels a trifle dated and perhaps a bit smug, the actors make it compelling nonetheless. --Tom Keogh

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True Crime

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Isaiah Washington, Lisa Gay Hamilton, James Woods, Denis Leary
ASIN : B00000JGOG
Sales Rank : 10731
Director : Clint Eastwood
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780790742267
ISBN : 0790742268
UPC : 085391632320
Release Date : December 10, 1999
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
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Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 127

Product Description

Steve everett is a faltering reporter recovering alcoholic and a womanizer. One editor wants him ousted: the other is the only one at the paper who still believes in him. When steve discovers that the key witness in the trial of a prisoner scheduled to die lied on the stand he only has 12 hours to prove his innocence. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/07/2004 Starring: Clint Eastwood Denis Leary Run time: 127 minutes Rating: R Director: Clint Eastwood

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Not enough people went to see True Crime in theaters. Wasn't Clint Eastwood too old to be playing a guy whom a variety of glorious women, from the middle-aged Diane Venora and Laila Robins to the young Mary McCormack and Lucy Liu, find attractive? Could the onetime Man with No Name credibly play a brilliant crime reporter, Steve Everett, with an ironic turn of phrase and an incurable habit of screwing up both his personal and professional lives? The respective answers to those questions are: hell no and hell yes. True Crime features one of Eastwood's best and most entertaining performances--and his work as director is utterly assured.

The story (from Andrew Klavan's bestselling novel) gives Everett the last-minute assignment of interviewing a condemned man (Isaiah Washington) on the eve of his execution. The prisoner, a born-again Christian and exemplary family man, has everything the reporter lacks except a shot at seeing the next sunrise. Everett sets out to get him that, yet far from making a beeline to the exculpatory evidence that will save the life of his "client," this very tarnished hero has to spend a lot of the next 24 hours contending with the baggage he's accumulated through drinking, wenching, and familial neglect. (A Pirandellian note: Everett's daughter is played by Eastwood's own daughter, Francesca Fisher-Eastwood, and her mother, Frances Fisher, returns for a feisty cameo as a prosecutor.)

This is a good one that got away. Don't let it happen again. -- Richard T. Jameson

Browse Crime & Criminals Online

In a Lonely Place

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Bugsy (Unrated Extended Cut)

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Mystic River (Full Screen Edition)

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Infamous

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Henry - Portrait of a Serial Killer (20th Anniversary)

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Shattered Glass

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The Petrified Forest

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True Crime

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Wonderland

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The Shield - Seasons 1 - 5